NEW YORK: Long-dated US Treasury yields edged lower on Wednesday on month-end buying and lingering concerns over Greece, while shorter-dated yields were mostly stable after the fears over Greece offset new supply.
The dip in 30-year Treasury yields marked their second straight daily decline and pushed the yields to their lowest in 2-1/2 weeks, at 2.87 percent. Demand was partly driven by investors purchasing bonds to readjust portfolios ahead of month-end.
Analysts have said that a decrease in new corporate supply this week has also helped prices on 30-year Treasury bonds, which move inversely to yields.
"We've found some stability in the long-end, with month-end buying and less investment-grade supply," said Justin Lederer, Treasury strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York.
Concerns over Greece also spurred some demand for safe-haven Treasuries. While a government official said Wednesday that Greece and its creditors were starting to draft a technical-level agreement that will include no more wage or pension cuts, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said there was not much progress in the Greek debt talks.
The Schaeuble comments brought traders "back to reality," said Sean Murphy, a Treasuries trader at Societe Generale in New York. "There's a still a lot to play out with the Greece situation," he added.
Greece has to repay the International Monetary Fund 300 million euros on June 5, the first of four installments due in June that total 1.6 billion euros.
Yields on shorter-dated notes were little changed, with the fears over Greece leading some investors to seek Treasury debt with a maturity of less than 30 years, while new supply capped demand. Investors typically sell US government debt to make room for new supply.
The US Treasury Department sold $35 billion of five-year notes to solid investor demand at a yield of 1.560 percent, up from 1.380 percent at the prior auction in April and the highest since December.
Traders looked ahead to Thursday's release of weekly US jobless claims data and Friday's preliminary first-quarter US gross domestic product data.
Benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes were last mostly flat in price to yield 2.13 percent, from a yield of 2.14 percent late on Tuesday. US five-year notes were last down 1/32 to yield 1.53 percent, from a yield of 1.52 percent late on Tuesday.
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